Adam Duval
Adam Thomas Duval is a New Cambria politician, solicitor and author. He was New Cambria's ninth Prime Minister, serving from 2006 to 2009. Early Life Adam Duval was born in Averytown, Avery County on 18 August 1953. He is the youngest of nine children born to Gerard and Angelique Duval, a museum curator and a caterer. Duval is a member of New Cambria's francophone community, and did not speak English fluently until he entered secondary school. He is a graduate of Mountain Peak High School and Southport City University, where he earned an L.L.B. in 1975, and an L.L.M. in 1979. Duval met Marie Burke, an attorney for whom Duval was a law clerk, in 1977. The two married in 1980, and returned to Averytown, where they had three children: Gabrielle (b. 1982), June (b. 1985), and Gerard (b. 1986). From 1981 to 1985, Duval worked as a public defender for Avery County's criminal court. After that, he was hired as an associate attorney at Keogh, Wright and Lee, one of New Cambria's largest corporate law offices. Duval commuted back and forth to Arvant each week during his first three years until 1988, when an Averytown-based field office of the law firm opened. Duval became a junior partner of the firm in 1992. Municipal politics and Assembly career Duval had been a registered member of the Independence Party since 1982, and had volunteered his legal services to Benjamin Vance's 1985 presidential campaign. In 1989, a vacant seat necessitated a by-election in the Averytown Municipal Council. Duval's wife persuaded him to run for the seat, and he was selected by his party to contest the election. Ultimately, he lost, collecting only 18% of the first-preference votes. In 1991, he was approached by Independence Party representatives in Averytown to run again, this time in the municipal council's general election. Duval won a seat in the council, and was named in La Voix, an Averytown-based French newspaper, as one of the Independence Party's ten most up-and-coming politicians. During his three-year term on the council, he was criticized by members of other parties, due to his simultaneous status as a public servant and a corporate attorney. He was partly credited, however, for having spearheaded the effort to improve traffic control measures in Averytown and lowering the municipal tax rates for locally-owned restaurants and cinemas. This helped soften his image, and by the end of his first term on the council he enjoyed high visibility and high popularity amongst the electorate. Having been relegated to the opposition by the Social Democrat Party in the 1991 general election, the Independence Party recruited well-liked local-level politicians to stand for election to Assembly in 1994 with the hope of returning to power. Duval contested the election in Averytown Central, and won a seat in the Assembly. The Independence Party fell short of its goal, however, and remained in opposition in the 12th Assembly. During his first terms in the Assembly, Duval was known as one of the most vocal proponents of multilingualism in New Cambria. Partly due to his efforts, bilingual employee incentives were issued to emergency services departments, and three years later, Duval and other members of New Cambria's French-speaking ADs extended foreign language instruction to all levels of education, both private and state-sponsored. The Independence Party was again defeated by the Social Democrats in the 1997 general election, making it the first time Duval's party lost three consecutive elections. A shake-up in leadership allowed Duval the opportunity to hold higher party offices and committee positions in Assembly. In 2000, Independence suffered its fourth straight election loss, and the party nearly split over who was to blame. Again, several party leaders resigned from their positions, and Duval found himself as one of the most senior Independence ADs. In the 14th Assembly, Duval served as Shadow Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. As a result of New Cambria's shrinking economy in the wake of 9/11 and the War on Terrorism, Independence experienced substantial gains in the 2003 general election, and was within striking distance of emerging victorious. After the full results were known, Independence remained in opposition, but this time by only four seats. Duval was elected Deputy Party Leader and took on role of Shadow Minister of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. Many political commentators saw this as Independence's way of grooming Duval for Prime Minister should his party win the next election. During the 15th Assembly, Duval became an unofficial ombudsman and press liaison for his party, largely due to his colloquial manner of speaking and his fluency in both English and French. In May 2006, Independence Leader Martin Ulrich announced he would resign his position and yield the party to Duval. Commenting that if Independence was going to win the election, Ulrich, then 73 years old, stated the position of Prime Minister required a "zest and an energy beyond the realm of possibility for an old man like himself." The 2006 general election was held on Thursday, 15 June 2006 and saw the Independence Party win a plurality of seats for the first time since 1988. A rainbow coalition was quickly formed consisting of the Independence, National, Progressive and Equality parties and one non-party AD. Duval was elected Prime Minister on 1 August 2006. Prime Minister Personal Life One of Duval's physical trademarks is his beard, which he has kept his entire political career despite tremendous pressure to shave it off. During his first year in the Assembly, his fellow ADs would often leave shaving razors on his desk as they filed out of the chamber. In 2003, during an interview on NCT's chat show Person to Person, Duval joked that keeping clean-shaven "not only irritates his skin, but it also irritates his wife." Duval is a lifelong tennis player, and is often referred to as having "semi-professional level" skill in the sport. In 2006, after having won the election, outgoing Prime Minister Thomas Rye presented him with a custom tennis racquet, which Duval says he uses every week. In November 2006, Duval's wife Marie was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, which, by the time it was diagnosed, had already spread to her kidneys and liver. Her prognosis was initially positive, but during the first round of chemotherapy and radiation treatments, doctors found more cancer in her bones and her abdomen. She passed away peacefully at her family's home in Southport on 26 February 2007. In the Prime Minister's absence, the Assembly ordered all flags at Parliament Buildings to be flown at half staff for seven days. Category:New CambriaCategory:Individuals